Steelhead can be incredibly selective with the beads they will take. I think that it is accurate to say that most steelhead runs occur well outside of typical salmon spawning cycles. As such, I don't think matching the hatch has much to do with turning steelhead on. Rainbows can also be and quite often are incredibly selective as well, but in a different way. Rainbows tend to have a strong preference for natural size and color and they are absolutely clued into the spawning cycle and, obviously, targeting this specifically. My three best steelhead beads, by far, are nothing close to natural looking. Take the Jerry Garcia glo bug? Not one of my favorites, but wicked deadly, and nothing close to natural.

Speaking to steelhead, for whatever reason certain beads seem to turn them on at certain times and under certain conditions more than others. In that sense, bead fishing can be pretty fun and challenging. Trying to find that days or that rivers "magic bead" can take a fair amount of time and homework. On rivers I am not familiar with, quite often I fish stretches of a river changing beads until I find one that works. Over time, I have narrowed quite a wide range of beads down to a handful. When I know am fishing to fish, it is rare that I won't get them to take one of the lot, and usually once you find that one, you catch pretty consistently. What the fish take can vary from day to day even on the same stretch of river under similar conditions.

There is a lot more to bead fishing than immediately meets the eye. Even within the bead fishing cliques, there is a big difference between those that know how to do it, and those that have it dialed.

Personally, I don't view it as a replacement for any other technique or something to drop all else for and take up exclusively. I think it is just another tool in the kit that has it's time and place. Sometimes that time or place is dictated by my mood as a fisherman, and sometimes it comes as a result of what the river is showing me. One thing is for sure, when the time is right, it can be the ultimate way to get fish to eat that otherwise wouldn't.

I don't necessarily agree about the fly rod not being the most effective way to present beads either. I would have a few years ago, but after spending quite a bit of time fishing them on long float and center pin rods, I can still work certain types of water far more effectively with my fly rod than I can with any other. The ability to mend a floating line and orient your terminal tackle downstream and into narrow slots for the "perfect drift" is often much easier with fly gear. I find that I fish a lot of water less effectively with traditional gear, and less water much more effectively with fly gear. With this method, it's all about the second or two the bead is in front of the fish and how good your bead and drift are, not necessarily about covering lots of water.

sorry for the novel